Tell some people there is an automobile manufacturing company in Africa and they probably ask you where? South Africa? Egypt? Many do not know it is in Nigeria including some who had seen their vehicles once or twice before. Chief Innocent Chukwuma is a big industrialist by any standard and his new venture of vehicle manufacturing could launch the fifty-four year old Nnewi businessman into a new and higher category of influential businessmen. In vehicle manufacturing, however, you have to supply your country, continent and the whole world to be taken seriously. Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) Company began full operation in 2014 with much enthusiasm but the jury is still out on the company.

The company has done many things well but some parts of its operations have left a lot to be desired. After more than a year in operation, I have seen Innoson vehicles, their big buses used for transit in the city of Enugu which did not look or sound inferior to other big buses I’ve seen, an eighteen seater bus going from Garki in Enugu to Lagos. But I have friends who don’t know Innoson vehicles and that is not a good development for the Nigerian company. In the world of traditional media like television, radio and the Internet, Innoson should be an household name in Nigeria already but it is far from that.

One important fact is that a vehicle brand has to be known before it can have a chance of selling its vehicles. One way of selling the vehicles is to put them in stores and hope that Nigerians with cash in their hands will leave the popular and reliable Toyotas, Hondas or Nissans and go for a vehicle with IVM logo in front of it. That is a bad strategy because most people have their mind made up before they go to a car dealer shop and hoping to change their mind at the eleventh hour is a hope in tragedy. There are people who drive vehicles in Nigeria who are unaware of Innoson and that should never happen to a company that wants to establish its products in the Nigerian market.

For the record, I am not an advertisement guru which means I do not know every ad in the Nigerian media but I have never seen an InnosonVehicle ad. Billboards? Television? Radio? Internet? Never. Advertisement is very important for established brands that want to stay on top of the industry but is more important for new brands that want to survive. Riding on the wave of ‘made in Nigeria car’ as an advertisement ploy and expecting that the media will continue shouting about it forever will go so far. Show us a video of your car going through a rough untarred road in an advertisement. It will not convert all of us to IVM fans but three out of ten may be willing to try and one may end up buying.

Nigeria is a country immersed in football and entertainment and these are two of the best avenues to spread a message. For instance, the Headies award held recently at the beginning of the year with an Hyundai SUV going to the winner of the next-rated category. I am sure if Innoson donates an SUV for that award category, it will help its publicity among Nigerians. And who says Innoson would not have been one of the benefactors from the controversy that trailed the awards ceremony. There are many things to be done in those two areas which is the job of their marketing department if they have.

I went to their website and I could not see up to ten pictures for any of their vehicle models. In my book, one hundred and twenty-three pictures will not even be too many for vehicles that you rarely see on the street. Innoson is making a vehicle for West Africa – at least that is their first target – but release an official picture of its IVM G5 SUV on a snowy mountain. Where is that in West Africa? I did not see testimony of customers on their website. I did not see review of their vehicles on any website except if it’s on the second page of Google search which doesn’t count most times. I searched for Innoson on YouTube and there was no official Innoson YouTube channel, no video showing a test drive of any of their vehicles.

When Innoson first rolled out five hundred vehicles, the Sun newspaper had an interview with the chairman of Innoson Group, Chief Innocent Chukwuma and this was his reply to ‘what are your marketing strategy and niche in the market?’:

“Innoson is a very strong brand in Nigeria and even beyond the country. All our products are of high quality, we don’t compromise on the quality of our products and we are known for this. So, Nigerians will definitely like our cars because they are of good quality and built specially to withstand the Nigerian roads. Nigerians have good taste and appreciate quality products, so they will definitely love our cars, I am 100 percent sure of it.”

I don’t know about you but that doesn’t sound like a good marketing strategy to me. Being a very strong brand in Nigeria as a result of your other previous products does not automatically sell vehicles, it is an entirely different part of the company. Saying ‘Nigerians will definitely love the cars’ as a marketing strategy is at best, a gamble. Making a great product is not a guarantee that it will sell but with the right marketing, even an average product have a good chance of selling to its target audience.

Innoson have to put its products in front of Nigerians. How many offices do they have in Nigeria? Do they have vehicle dealers selling their vehicles in every state of the country? How many service outlets do they have in Nigeria? How can I repair my vehicle if it has a fault? Word of mouth is very important in making products go viral and it is easier to talk about things you see than things in your imagination. If we have one million Nigerians who want to buy a vehicle, can we find five hundred thousand out of them who know Innoson? Can we find ten thousand out of them who would want to buy the made in Nigeria vehicle?

One other place where Innoson can compete for Nigerians is the pricing of its vehicles. I would personally not advise them to sacrifice quality for price but their vehicles should be cheaper than a similar foreign vehicle while offering a stronger performance.
In three or four years time, Innoson will face an influential moment, when some people who had taken a chance with their vehicles will want to sell them to buy other vehicles. Will they have good second hand value? If they have, then we will believe it is a brand made for Nigerians. One of the main reasons Toyota and Honda are leading vehicle brands in Nigeria is their good second hand value. Few Nigerians want to buy a vehicle that you find difficult to sell after three years.

Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing (IVM) Company has already done a lot by building a vehicle plant in this discouraging Nigerian economy. But Nigerians or consumers anywhere else in the world do not buy due to pity, they buy things they know and that will give them satisfaction and value for their money. Innoson has to put its vehicles in front of Nigerians at a great price and with other incentives if it really wants to have a foothold in the Nigerian and West African market. It has to get its public relations game up to speed. I wish them good luck in the future.

They should invest heavily in adverts and create more awareness. They're not Garri that can stand the test of time without advert

masonkz:
They should invest heavily in adverts and create more awareness. They're not Garri that can stand the test of time without advert

That's true. They expect people to automatically patronise their products coz it's made in Nigeria. Ben Bruce tried with his campaign but it's more to build his personal 'common sense' brand than to make Innoson a big player. Innoson isn't going far if they can't do the basic things properly.

Whizpeter:
One of the most refreshing posts I've read in recent times! Educative!
OP your brain too big I concur!

just trying to make common sense bro.